Your 'Ah-Ha' Moment

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The moment for me has been a long time comming. Here in Hawaii where there are beaches everywhere there are also plenty of good looking men and women from all over the world. There is a big body image factor that goes around here in Hawaii (at least i think so). Of course as a healthy minded human being i would like to find a woman of my likings. The problem here in the state with many beaches and beach bodied people is that if you're out of shape or aren't within the standard you were no longer an eligible mate. So i decided to make change and started road biking because it was low impact and who doesn't enjoy speed and the wind hitting your body. Eventually i grew fond of this sport and started looking into what kind of a body I'd need to conquer hills (i love the climbs). I quickly found out that I'd need to be ultra light with muscle. Then i started looking into what these athletes eat on a regular basis and started to mimic it. Im almost there and im looking better than ever. Almost 9 months in since i started and i can slightly see my abs. I dropped down from a mens 36 pants to a men 29. My shirts used to be large but now they are small or medium depending on brand. I started off at 210lbs and now 143lbs. Im almost done losing weight and hopefully next year i can show off my body at the beach next year when the abs are full blown.

My aha moment was being in my 50's, knowing I only have one child, and fearing they'd be burdened with me and horrible health problems like my mother has from being severely overweight. Couldn't stand the thought that my daughter would have to be saddened by my poor health were I to stay that way.

I was on here in 2012 and lost 60 pounds, hit my goal weight and then stopped. 6 years later I am 70 pounds heavier, bad knees and pre diabetic. My doctor show me a chart on how for the last several years I have steadily gained weight. He told me I could get rid of 90% of my problems if I got my weight under control. He also told me that I was at a tipping point where I am headed for serious health problems that could be irreversible if I didn't do anything. So here I am. I did it before and I hope to do it again and stay on it this time.

My ah-ha moment was when I was at a family get together and when I looked at the pictures to post and I looked huge!!! Then looking in the mirror one day and my face didn't look the same. My ultimate moment was when I went to put on a few outfits for my birthday celebration and nothing fit or I had rolls here or it was just to tight to get on. I had a choice to either go up a size or loose weight; I choose to lose weight because i'm not comfortable in my own skin and no one can change it but me!! I just have to stay in the race,stay motivated and not give up when it gets hard or when I get tired!!!

It took a lot for me. 3 things mainly. I saw (like others) a picture of with my daughter walking on a pier in Florida after vacation. My belly was huge. Like gigantic! Shortly after, I also blew a knee out and couldn't walk for nearly a year -- I blew nearly every ligament and shredded the meniscus off the bone. My dog (who was a 90 lb Chow/Golden mix) got a very long walk in the woods every weekend. He was a skiddish dog, scared of people and although we have a big yard, he LOVED our walks in the local parks and I couldn't walk for a year, much less handle him. Seeing his sad face on the weekend and knowing his walks were my responsibility drove me to rehab like a beast. The other thing was a scare with my health -- I smoked for years and had a huge pain in the side. Got it scanned and found it was a popped rib, not cancer. These three things motivated me.

Ended up losing 70 lbs, worked on (after two knee surgeries) learning to walk again without a meniscus and ended up taking my dog (Joey) on many, many years of long, happy walks together. He just passed last year at 13 years old. He got his walks up till the week he passed. He loved them so much. That reward alone was worth the hard work I put in. I not only walked with Joey, I started (albeit slowly) jogging with him as well while he was still young enough. Actually, I had a hard time keeping up with him.

Multiple different "ugh I want to lose weight" epiphanies, but I think the final one was the realization that there are several female Biggest Loser contestants who are lighter than me less than halfway through their seasons.

I would say the same for me as many others!
When I saw a picture of myself holding my 4 month old son! I knew something had to change!

My motivation every other time has been looks, this time it's too feel good and to have a long healthy happy life with my son. I know everyone says you need to do things for yourself and they're right. My son is such a huge part of me so for me it does still fall under the category of for myself and for the ones I love!

My opinion is a correct mindset is everything when starting to focus on health and weight loss. especially when making those new changes into habits! If I want to continue to be successful then I need to refocus and get back my mindset back to its correct state so i can stick with the goals I have laid out for myself. Its too easy to say yes too cheesecake or chips in the moment, but keeping your mindset focused is important. I always remember saying yes to those yummy foods everytime will not get me where I want to be standing in the future! Sometimes Food can be pleasure and enjoyment and sometimes it can be to help fuel your body to survive, the best is finding a healthy happy mix between the two and that will be my life long goal!

My Ah-ha moment was when I was sitting in the Drs. Office with my husband and he was diagnosed with diabetes. At that moment, I realized we needed a lifestyle change. A month before, I had a heart cath and the cardiologist told me that I had a vein that was clogged and could not be stented, so he put me on more medicine. I was disgusted with more medicine.

The motivation is trying to get healthy. My husband and I are seniors, so time is running out to get it right.

I definitely think that mindset makes a difference. I'm not even tempted to cheat.

My Ah-Ha moment was when I was told i need a op to remove fibroid tumours and being told that if i was a 'normal' weight for my height and age it would have been less likely that I would of had them, so then i was like well damn I need to fix this, I have two kids that need me.

Im currently the heaviest I have ever been and i'm planning to lose as much as I can in the healthiest way, no cutting corners and no stressing myself out about it. Healthy eating and the gym

I know I need to change my mindset and get better , but progress is progress and i will take every day as it comes

I've always struggled with the knowledge that I needed to lose weight to feel healthier and look better, but I really and truly felt addicted to terrible processed food. I was eating at McDonald's 5 out of 7 days a week, and ordering out every night, and as soon as I finished each meal, I felt wracked with guilt and totally miserable. I felt unable to get out of the cycle until I started going to a behavioral therapist who specialized in disordered eating.

After the first session, she said "Do you think it's do-able to drink 1 extra cup of water every day this week?" I said "of course, that's easy."

The next week, she asked "How about download MFP onto your phone and explore it? Don't even log anything, just look around and see how it works." I said "Of course I can do that, that's easy."

The third week she said "Can you eat a small breakfast every day this week?"

We were working together to find small achievable goals that made it so much easier to kick the processed food habit and eat reasonable portions, even start cooking and meal prepping. I am hopeful that I can keep this up! It's been 3.5 months already and I've lost 32 pounds.

My Ah-Ha moment was when I was told i need a op to remove fibroid tumours and being told that if i was a 'normal' weight for my height and age it would have been less likely that I would of had them, so then i was like well damn I need to fix this, I have two kids that need me.

Im currently the heaviest I have ever been and i'm planning to lose as much as I can in the healthiest way, no cutting corners and no stressing myself out about it. Healthy eating and the gym

I know I need to change my mindset and get better , but progress is progress and i will take every day as it comes

I was told same in May and had a similar moment in June. I wasn't quite at my heaviest, but not far off. I had lost weight then gain 2/3 back after being put on steroids. Since making some changes I have lost the steroid weight and plateaued there for a couple of weeks, but the fibroid symptoms haven't been so severe lately. Not having another ultrasound for a while so I won't know if it's helped reduce them.

I've always struggled with the knowledge that I needed to lose weight to feel healthier and look better, but I really and truly felt addicted to terrible processed food. I was eating at McDonald's 5 out of 7 days a week, and ordering out every night, and as soon as I finished each meal, I felt wracked with guilt and totally miserable. I felt unable to get out of the cycle until I started going to a behavioral therapist who specialized in disordered eating.

After the first session, she said "Do you think it's do-able to drink 1 extra cup of water every day this week?" I said "of course, that's easy."

The next week, she asked "How about download MFP onto your phone and explore it? Don't even log anything, just look around and see how it works." I said "Of course I can do that, that's easy."

The third week she said "Can you eat a small breakfast every day this week?"

We were working together to find small achievable goals that made it so much easier to kick the processed food habit and eat reasonable portions, even start cooking and meal prepping. I am hopeful that I can keep this up! It's been 3.5 months already and I've lost 32 pounds.

Your therapist sounds like a keeper! I’d wish you luck, but you’re making your own

Cloths started to get very tight the choice was buy a whole new wardrobe of 36 inch trousers etc and accept a permanent fatter me or go on a diet

With MFP managed to cut down 30 pounds over 15 weeks and now weight less than at any other point in my adult life.

63kg at 5ft7 which is apparently the ideal weight for my height it was my aim and I managed to hit it. In fact I managed to get to 61kg and become a little bit skinny for my frame the idea being to then go on a lean bulk and build some muscle. Hope the next stage of adding 8-10kg of muscle is as straightforward and easy as the weight loss was

Only mistake I made I think I cut calories too much and going slower would have been wiser. I averaged 110 gram loss per day over the period which is probably excessive but I didn't fall ill or anything like that only had two days I felt bad for a bit and just upped calories 500 and was fine.

I'm hoping I will keep up with this for the rest of my life it isn't difficult just logging in foods and aiming for maintenance or a slight surplus or deficit

Besides weight loss another benefit is cardio is much easier and heart rate much lower at 55bpm Vs 75bpm pre weight loss. Plus I eat better now

I joind MFP a long time ago. Before they had apps. I tried to stick with it but I hated booting my computer up for each meal.

My ah-ha moment came with my divorce. My ex is a cruel and controlling man. So I ate a lot. He told me I let myself go the day he asked for the divorce.

1 year later I had lost 95 pounds, but he and the woman who he cheated on me with had gained a lot of weight.

I fell off my band wagon again late last year when I fell on the ice 6 times in 4 weeks. I struggled with moving for a while. Plus being a single mom with 5 jobs to make ends meet I was just not finding the time. That was my excuse. I had put 40 pounds back on.

My next ah-ha moment came with my new jobs. I wear uniforms at both jobs. I feel like I look horrible in them. This time, I am losing weight for my self. I feel my best when I look my best. I know appearance isn't always everything. But I love to dress up in suits and dresses. And being heavy I don't like the way I look in them.